There will be a special meeting of the Greater Lowell Technical School Committee on Tuesday, February 12,2013, at 5:30 p.m, to be held in the Administrative Conference Room, 250 Pawtucket Boulevard, Tyngsboro, MA.
The purpose of this meeting will be to go into Executive Session to discuss and strategize contract negotiations for non union personnel, specifically the contract for Superintendent of Schools, Mary Jo Santoro, pursuant to MGL c.30A, (a)(2).
This will be the meeting where the Committee as a whole will discuss the pro’s and con’s of offering to negociate a new contract with the Superintendent or decide that they want to open the search up and move in another direction.
Since this is to discuss strategy that if done in public would not be in the best interest of the district, it will be done in Executive session.
In Lowell we have seen both the Manager’s and recently the Auditor’s contract done in the same fashion and I didn’t see any hue and cry not to do those contracts that way.
Whatever the Committee decides, it is still in the hands of the Superintendent to choose if SHE is interested in continuing should they want to offer to go into negotiations to award her a new contract.
To my knowledge she hasn’t publicly stated she does or does not want one.
Assuming it is all about the kids, even though the Vokes, generally, do better than your run-of-the-mill high schools, the GLTHS was still higher than the state average for Drop Out Rate.
From The Sun:
The Pioneer Institute report released last month found the statewide dropout rate at comprehensive high schools was about 3 percent in 2011. Among the 39 vocational technical high schools, the rate was 1.6 percent and less than 1 percent among regional vocational technical schools.
-snip
Greater Lowell Technical High School in Tyngsboro, with 2,116 students, had a dropout rate of 3.2 percent last year.
Then there is this:
While GLTHS ‘ MCAS scores have improved, so have those of every other technical high school in the state. As a result, it’s still rated at Level 3, meaning it is among the lowest-performing 20 percent of schools in the commonwealth.
See, while the Poineer Institute points out that schools like GLTHS get to cherry pick the kids they take and the ones they keep, that school, under Supt. Santoro underperforms in Drop Out Rate & MCAS.
The choice is fairly clear for any School Committee member that isn’t part of the “Family Affair” out there at GLTHS.
I’m not suggesting Supt. Santoro be fired, thus disgraced. Just let the contract expire, as it is set to do at the end of June.
The GLTHS SC should begin the task of finding a Supt. from outside the sphere of the shenanigans in this district. Press the reset button!
I do believe that Supt Santoro has done a great job with running the school , Just because she has not bent down and kiss the ring of a couple of ego driven school board members is no reason not to give her a new contract. I call on the other 6 sensible members to look at what she has done and forget about what people like Jack Mitchell says. This guy says a whole lot of things about what is going on in our city and district, but to date he nor his partner Lynne ( queen of mean ) Lupien have done anything but complain about things. So forget these uneducated haters and look at the facts.
PS hopefully one of the 2 naysayers on the board who is up for re-election this year has competition
Supt. Santoro has a strong record of accomplishment with clear focus on what it takes to move the school forward. I haven’t met her, but have admiration for her style and her ability to get results. Hopefully the contract negotiations will go smoothly.